


Starry Nights

by crowaion



Category: Show By Rock!! (Anime)
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other, RoleSwap Au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-04-02 13:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4061893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowaion/pseuds/crowaion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If the stars are all dreams like you say they are, then where did ours go?</p><p>You liar.</p><p>"Someday, I promise, I'll grant your wish."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beginning of the End

**Author's Note:**

> This is a roleswap AU with Shuzo and Aion's roles switched around. Shuzo is with ShinganCrimsonz and Aion is with Trichronika.

_"I govern the world of the stars, where each blindingly beautiful light is another one of your dreams! As your God, allow me to grant your wish!"_  
  
_"Cloaked in a shadowy despair, yet reaching always for the ray of hope you give us... Allow us, ShinganCrimsonz, to show you a world of sin."_

* * *

Even just entering the concert hall is difficult, fans crowding the area always cause an issue yet Trichronika never complains and greets their fans with dazzling smiles and graceful waves (save for Kai, who waves so hard it exhausts Riku and Aion just looking at him). When they exit their limo, the deafening screams from the fans don't bother them in the slightest, the three of them pausing to give autographs and talk to some of the fans as they have time before they have to perform, especially considering a rival band is opening for them today.

"Aion!" A fan calls out, waving their hand wildly. It's a young boy, and he looks odd among all the girls gathered, but Aion doesn't mind it and skips over, grinning down at the child.

"Hello! What's your name?"

"Sakuya!" The child replies happily, "If it's okay, can I have your autograph? I really love ShinganCrimsonz..."

His smile falters for a moment, but in a second it's back and blinding, like stage lights. "I'm not in that band, you know?" Not anymore.

"Oh... but I still liked you in it. Is it okay still? I like Trichronika too."

Nodding, Aion pats the child's head, an affectionate expression upon his features. He crouches down to be eye to eye with Sakuya, taking the photo the child wanted signed. For a moment, his gaze on the picture is nostalgic, almost sad, but it quickly disappears and he signs it, handing it back over to Sakuya. "Here you go! I hope you enjoy the concert, okay?"

"Mm! I will! Thank you!"

Standing up, Aion walks away with a smile, waving goodbye. Riku and Kai are suddenly at his side, rushing him off, as they're now pressed for time. The three dash inside, much to the fans amusement, heading backstage and preparing for their performance. As the stage changes to suit them, Aion looks out at all the lights and colours, dazed by just how bright it all is. Like a forced, bright smile a sad person gives to cover up how much they're dying inside. He's only snapped out of his reverie when the twins look at him worriedly and question if he's alright, as it's nearly time to go on. Shaking his head, Aion waves them off and grins, "I'm fine, just thinking about something. Now, let's dazzle the crowd again, okay?"

The two boys give an affirmative nod, happily replying that, of course, they'll do their best and it'll be an amazing concert again. A few seconds later, they rush onto stage and the concert begins, Aion losing himself in the music, pushing away dark thoughts that don't belong near him anymore.

\- * -

"Thank you all for coming to our concert! I hope to see you all again! Until we meet again, _shine brightly!_ "

As the fans cheer, Trichronika waves goodbye as they walk off stage with those parting words. Breathing a sigh of relief once they're backstage, Aion stretches his arms above his head, nearly hitting an exit sign (what with how tall he is) if not for Riku quickly pulling him away. "Thank you," He smiles, reaching out to pat Riku on the head, the boy giving a soft smile at the touch. "that was a wonderful concert, don't you think?"

"Yes! You showed them such a beautiful starry sight, Aion!" Kai chirps, coming up close to Aion's side and receiving a pat on the head of his own, a grin coming forth with his tail wagging excitedly.  
  
"Without you two it would've been impossible. So thank you for putting on another amazing show with me." Aion says as they continue walking down the hall together, "A God cannot work without his angels!"  
  
"Gahhh! Are you still talking like that?!"  
  
The three of them look up and to the speaker of whom Aion smiles at when he sees who it is, spreading his arms wide, "Hello, Crow! It's been a long time, huh? Thank you to you and your band for opening for us today on such short notice, since the previous one cancelled!"

A few feet away stands ShinganCrimsonz, a lesser known band but a rival to Trichronika nonetheless. The smallest member, Crow, looks incredibly annoyed as he stares at Aion. "Whatever." He says with a roll of his eyes, crossing his arms, "You're still using that stupid act. The fuck is wrong with you? It's so fake."  
  
"Oi, Crow, watch it. You know full well why he does this. It isn't hurting anyone." Rom stops Crow from going any further, reaching over to shove at Crow gently, giving a nod in greeting to Aion, who waves in response.  
  
"That's right, he has his reasons, just as you use your silly cattle talk like you're some big hotshot." Shuzo teases as he comes up to stand beside Crow, a smirk at his lips, finger prodding at Crow's cheek, which only angers the boy further, shoving Shuzo away from him.  
  
Aion laughs at their antics before tilting his head to the side, eyes narrowed affectionately. Kai and Riku look at him, confused as to why he's making such a nostalgic expression, but they don't interrupt. Brushing off Crow's earlier compliant easily, Aion asks, "So, what is it you'd like to speak to me about? I doubt you came here just to complain about me. Or is that just how much you've missed me, Crow?" He leans forward, nose almost touching Crow's. As the hedgehog's face colours a deep red shade, Aion smirks in response, the moment only ceased when Kai shoves himself in the middle, prying them apart.  
  
"Hey! Don't get so close to Aion!"  
  
"What?! Who are _you_ to tell me if I can't get close to him? _He_ started it! Besides, _I_ can get as close to him all I want!" Crow shouts, sparks going off between him and Kai.

Yaiba quickly pulls Crow away, just as Riku rushes over to soothe his twin, smiling gently, "No more fighting, okay?" Kai grunts in response but relents, not wanting to get into a fight and have Aion get in trouble.  
  
"Ahh! As cute as usual, Riku!" Aion squeals, cutting through the tension and wrapping Riku in a hug, to which Crow immediately complains about, saying something about Aion being "too affectionate and it's _gross_ ". Kai stays to the side, frowning slightly, until Aion gestures for him to join, to which he quickly grins and rushes in, the three of them in one huge hug pile.  
  
"God! They're so nice to each other. I've never seen a band get along so well." Shuzo sighs, flicking his black bangs out of his eyes, "Not even _we're_ that close, Rom. I'm jealous! Why don't you hold me like that, huh?"  
  
"Oh shut up," Rom growls, pushing a struggling Shuzo who's attempting to cling to his arm away, "we didn't come here for this anyway."  
  
"Right," Yaiba chimes in, "we came here on other business. Hence—"  
  
"We're challenging you to a battle of the bands!" Crow cuts Yaiba off, pointing at Trichronika, "And you guys are gonna _lose!_ "  
  
Pulling apart, Aion, Riku, and Kai look to each other before giggling, which makes Crow more upset, but they quickly stop and Aion smiles at the four, giving two peace signs and a wink. "Okay! Challenge accepted! Let's have a _stellar_ time playing together! As long as the fans are happy, I'm happy!"  
  
Grimacing, Crow turns away from his old friend. Rom, Shuzo, and Yaiba, content with the response they've received, as that's what they stayed back for, already begin walking off, discussing this and that, but Crow lingers for a moment to whisper, "When are you gonna come back and be the Dark God I remember?"

The three ahead catch that and Rom frowns, debating on whether he should go grab Crow and drag him off before he starts something, but Shuzo places a hand on his shoulder and shakes his head. "Let it go, he's not moving on anytime soon, Rom. No matter how much we intervene." He then lowers his voice a bit and whispers to him, "Though, he really should leave the past behind. Aion isn't coming back..."

Crow hears it all and his shoulders fall in a visible expression of his inner grief. He knows. Logically, he knows all this. All that Shuzo's saying. But he doesn't _want_ to know, that's what his heart says. He wants to keep deluding himself into believing Aion will come back someday, that everything will stop being like this and it will be _good_ again. It'd be a long time before he could come to terms with the fact the Aion he knew was long gone.  
  
Aion's eyes widen momentarily but he quickly regains himself and sighs. He shakes his head and gestures for the twins to follow him, walking past Crow, "I told you. That part of me is long gone. I'm better off as I am now. What we were is _over_ , Crow. You have to let the past go."  
  
"... If it was _really_ over, you wouldn't sound so sad about it right now."  
  
Before Aion can reply, Crow pushes past the three, pushing _especially_ hard at Aion, and rushes off after his bandmates, leaving Aion behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to lana for reading this over and giving me some stuff to add!! i'm trying to keep most of it vague but still have enough setting and detail... i haven't written a multi-chapter fic since i was like... a preteen... so here's to hoping i can handle this! i'll try to not make chapters overly long or too short, but sometimes the length will differ greatly depending on if it's a memory or not. anyways! chapter two should soon be up since it's a memory chapter! bye for now!


	2. Recollection: Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some warnings for a lot of depression talk and light suicide attempt mentions!

There's a feeling deeper than sadness, deeper than any simple saying of "I feel bad right now." It's deeper than being upset you missed your favourite show or even being upset someone passed. It consumes you, it swallows you like a shadow creeping up and then pulling you in so far, you can't see any kind of light anymore.

Aion felt this feeling a lot.

His hands cover his face, the usually tall myuumon looking incredibly small and fragile, curled up in a corner of his room, shaking violently. He doesn't want to recognize that he's crying, but he is, and it makes his head throb in pain, but he only passes it off as a pain he deserves, a small physical expression of everything he's feeling inside, even. His nails dig into the skin of his forehead before they reach up and now yank at his hair, sobs falling from his lips, unmuffled now with his hands off his face.

He can't explain _why_ he's feeling this, it's all jumbled in his head. It could be lots of things like how he feels his composing is horrible or how frustrated he is that he can't socialize properly and drives people away or even how he hates how, like right now, he gets so self-deprecating over what he keeps deeming "stupid things", though, deep down, he knows better. Ever since he was a child, after his first attempt at taking his own life, he'd been in therapy, and he'd learned saying all these things were stupid wasn't true, but it never changed how much he _thought_ so in these moments.

Gnawing on his bottom lip, he slowly removes his shaky hands from his hair and forces himself to get up, pushing himself up and off from the floor, staggering over to his bed, of which he flops face first down onto. He keeps trying to calm himself, to assure himself he's fine and this feeling will pass in time, that soon it will be dulled almost entirely and he'll be happy. But another part of him, a voice inside him, just keeps laughing, calling him an idiot for thinking so.

He isn't aware of how much time has passed, he just lays there in exhaustion from another episode, blankly staring out into space, barely registering the fact someone just opened his door (a soft creak of it opening being the alerting noise). Footsteps echo and soon a bundle of red and black has plopped down on the bed beside him, resting their head on the palm of their hand, looking over at Aion. His head is pounding still, he doesn't greet whom he knows is Crow and continues laying there, flinching only slightly when Crow reaches over and begins to comb his fingers through Aion's hair gently.

"Another one? You don't have to talk, don't worry. I'll talk instead."

Aion nods, rolling over and closer to Crow, the feeling of someone close somewhat comforting, though a lingering part of him screams out in fear of getting too close and allowing Crow too much knowledge of just how _dark_ Aion is. He doesn't want to put Crow through that, through the agony of dealing with someone so depressing. It'd affect him too, and he's long since decided to ignore any arguments Crow puts up about being shoved away. It's safer like this, for him, for Crow.

"You know," Crow sighs, pulling his hand away from Aion's hair and instead reaching down to take Aion's hand in his, "your Dark God act gets fans and all, but don't you think it's weird that so many fans think it's all hot and shit that you're depressed? I mean, they don't know _why_ you do that, but..."

"It's easier," Aion croaks, interrupting Crow, who looks down at him, confused. "it's easier for them to love that "me", you know...? If I act like that, if I act like I'm superior, I won't need anyone. And I don't mean that as if I think I'm better than anyone, because I sure as hell don't, but... if I'm "better" than them, that means I don't need anyone to help me. It means I'm safe, alone, independent. A safe distance away from people. I won't hurt them. And they won't hurt me."

"You aren't hurting anyone, Aion." Crow frowns.

Aion gets up from the bed, intent on getting something to drink and maybe some pain killers to soothe his headache, and begins heading for the door, pausing at the frame to look over his shoulder at Crow. Streaks of old tears stained his cheeks and Crow finally sees them, worried by just how much Aion's cried this time, especially considering there's some claw marks on his face too and his hair _looks_ like it's been yanked at. He usually isn't _this_ upset...

Sighing, Aion shakes his head and turns to look ahead, something about him seeming taller, yet still so far away and darker, as if he's trying to seem strong again, but in a different way than before. "That's what you say now. But things will change eventually."

That was the last time they spoke about this before Aion left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SHOUTOUT TO LANA AGAIN at this point we're writing this together


End file.
